Summer Vacation in Canada
by GIRZim232
Summary: The sequel to Feliciano's Fire. At the end of the school year the Bad Company Club agreed to meet at Matthew's house in Canada. So what does he decide to do? Plan a camping trip. Please read Feliciano's Fire first if you haven't already.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello again everyone, I hope I haven't kept you waiting for too long. I was just attending to other projects of mine that are pretty unrelated to the Gifted Series or even writing. Mostly playing Portal 2… So here's the first chapter to Summer Vacation in Canada, which I have stated on my profile is more light and fluffy than Feliciano's Fire and the future stories to come. I hope you all enjoy this story. As usual reviews are welcome. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or any media that inspired this story.**

The Gifted Series 2: Summer Vacation in Canada

It had been almost two months since the end of the term, almost three since the conflict against the Society for the Betterment of Mankind and Francis was thankful for being on break. As he watched Alfred and Matthew play a game of tag with other children in the park he realized that it was a good thing the fight happened when it did. If it happened earlier, the students involved would have been the center of attention for the whole year. Even someone who enjoys the limelight as much as Francis would have gotten tired of being the center of attention eventually, and would have craved the simplicity of his previous day to day existence. "Normalcy is good." He thought to himself. "It allows them to be carefree."

Alfred ran away from his pursuer as fast as he could without drawing on his additional reserves of strength. There was no point in ruining the game by showing what he was really capable of, even though he really wanted to. During his short time with his gift Alfred learned that showing off outside of school frequently backfires, and leads to the games ending. He looked out of the corner of his eye and saw his younger brother which clearly meant one thing to the young American; escape. In the blink of an eye Alfred altered his course so that he was running straight towards his brother, laughing boisterously as he did so.

"Alfred? What are you doing?" Matthew asked as he realized what Alfred's master plan was.

"I don't have to be faster than who's 'it' if I'm faster than you. Have fun getting tagged bro!" Matthew also started running after his brother to avoid becoming 'it.' Alfred expanded on his tactic by dragging all the other kids into this insane chase. Despite his general distaste for healthy food and his primary hobby of video gaming Alfred was surprisingly athletic even without his enhanced strength. Francis was impressed that his American cousin caused these other children to forget they had a whole park to run around in. Shortly after observing this the moment was broken when one of the children was tagged, causing the mob to disperse. The game went on like this for some time. Matthew eventually got tired and quietly removed himself from the game to sit under a tree. It was a relatively cool day for summertime, and Matthew was grateful for that. If it were a hot day going to the park would have been unbearable and the boys wouldn't have met that group of kids. He sat under the tree and looked up at the sky, admiring its beauty. "Mom said the weather was supposed to be pretty mild this year….." he thought to himself as he watched a bird and was then struck by a brilliant idea. "Alfred!" he yelled as loud as he could, which was not very loud at all.

His brother was too busy with their brief companions to notice Matthew's call. Fortunately for Matthew, Francis called the boys telling them it was time to leave.

"Did you see that? Everybody totally wanted to be my homie!" Alfred loudly proclaimed as they walked back to Matthew's home.

"Yes, I saw. You are turning out to be quite the social butterfly, maybe someday you will be as popular as I am." Said Francis with a smirk.

"Get real, Al's ego's gonna get in the way." Matthew said in a joking tone, he then walked ahead of his brother and cousin. He then turned around and started walking backward so he could face them and talk. "I had this great idea, but we have to see if Mom'll be okay with it."

"Well, let's hear it." Said Alfred impatiently, anything that could be described as a 'great idea' was something to get excited about. Anyone who knew Alfred F. Jones knew that when he was excited about something he did not like to wait.

"Alright, so you both know that most of the Bad Company Club will be coming to stay with us for the last month of vacation. Also the weather is good and pretty much all of us like some sort of adventure and the outdoors. So I was thinking that we should plan a camping trip for all of us to go on. What do you think?" Alfred stared at his brother briefly, and then gave a wide grin.

"That sounds amazing! It would be the most fun camping trip ever!" he yelled. Francis smiled, but wasn't as enthusiastic.

"I'm not quite into camping, but I'm sure it will be fun with everyone there so I'll go."

"I'm sure that if we plan a trip Gilbert wouldn't give you a choice. You know how pushy he is." Said Matthew. Shortly after that, they arrive at the William's home.

"Hey mom, we have to ask you something." Said Alfred.

"When all our friends get here is it alright if we go on a camping trip? It would be a lot of fun." The boy's mother looked up at the ceiling as though considering the pros and cons of this proposal; she eventually smiles at the boys.

"I don't see any reason why not, I'll call your uncle and see if he'd like to go on the trip as well." The two younger boys cheered and ran off to start making their plans.

**Woo! I got more down than I thought I would, I seriously started writing this days ago but was having trouble thinking of what to write. Anyway, slow first chapter is slow. I hope you all liked it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again, normally I like to make updates as fast as possible to keep my motivation up. The problem with that right now is that I have a bunch of other self- imposed projects that I felt needed work. Also it's the first week of the semester so I have concerned myself with things such as books. In any case here is a shiny new chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not on Hetalia or any other media that inspired this story.**

A few days later, the three boys were sitting in the dining room waiting for their uncle to come over and discuss the trip plans. Francis was passing the time by reading a book with… dubious content. Alfred and Matthew, on the other hand were bored. They had virtually exhausted Alfred's supply of games and neither of them felt like reading.

"What are we gonna do?" Matthew asked his brother. Alfred sighed and looked around the room, his expression implying that he was in physical pain from the boredom.

"I don't know dude, just give me a minute and I'll try and think of something."

"Alfred thinks?" Matthew thought to himself as his brother resumed lying on the floor as though he were a puddle. Francis looked up from his book at the two boys.

"Why don't you go play a game in the backyard or something? Your constant sighs of boredom are distracting me from my reading!"

"What's in that book anyway?" asked Matthew, "It looks like something that is written for adults."

"I'm close enough to being an adult. So it doesn't matter if I read this."

"That's it!"

Both Matthew and Francis turned toward Alfred who was sitting up and grinning stupidly.

"What's it?" asked Francis. Alfred leapt to his feet and assumed what Matthew guessed was supposed to be a 'hero' pose.

"We are going to mess with Uncle John." Alfred announced, adding a slight emphasis to the word 'we'.

"How are we going to do that?" Matthew asked, imitating his brother's inflection. Alfred put his hands on his hips and leaned backward slightly as he started laughing.

"We're totally going to hide from him! It's gonna be the funniest thing! When he shows up here he's gonna be like, 'Woah, where did Francis, Al, and Mattie go?' and he'll be all surprised when we're all over the place!"

Matthew smiled, it sounded like an amusing enough diversion. It would be much better than just sitting around with nothing to do. Francis looked less happy about the idea. Matthew guessed it was an age difference thing.

"I'd really rather not." Said Francis, who had already gone back to his book and had little intention to join them in their game. Alfred gasped and stared at Francis with a crushed look on his face. Matthew wasn't fooled though, he knew that when his brother got that expression it meant that loud begging would ensue.

"Please, please, please, please, please, please, pleeeeaaaasssseeeee! If you don't hide too it won't have the same effect at all!" Alfred began. He went on in this manner for around ten minutes, leaving Matthew completely stupefied that Francis was able to endure for that long. Eventually the Frenchmen broke down and decided to play Alfred's little game. They scattered around the property to find good places to hide. Alfred looks up and decides that the top of a tree is a good place to hide from his uncle, so he flies to the upper branches to wait. Matthew decides to hide in the basement; to him it didn't really matter because he was naturally the best at hide and seek in his family. Francis had no idea where to hide, so he decided to go to the tree house that was also in the back yard.

Shortly after they all found their hiding places their uncle arrived.

"Hey Jane, where are the boys?"

"Ummm…. I heard Al say something about hiding from you." She said to her brother. John rolled his eyes and smiled.

"This shouldn't be too difficult." He said as he went to the back yard. From the top of a nearby tree he heard the sound of laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha! He'll never find me in this tree!" Alfred practically shouted. John smiled and shook his head.

"You can come down from there Al." Alfred gasped and jumped down from the tree, stopping his fall a foot above the ground.

"How'd you find me?" he asked in an exasperated tone. John laughed and told Alfred that he gave himself away. John then headed to the tree house, figuring he'd find one of the other boys there. Francis winked and waved at his uncle.

"You're getting odder by the year…"

"Nice to see you too…" Francis said in reply. John sighed and shook his head. He often wondered what type of people his French nephew spent time with.

"Now we have to find Mattie." Alfred proclaimed, "You can't win the game without finding Mattie." John nodded and the three went in search of Matthew. Francis wasn't sure if there was a point in looking for his younger cousin; due in part to his gift and his naturally quiet nature Matthew was incredibly good at hide and seek. So good that Francis declared a rule about them playing that game, Matthew had to be the seeker first. The three searched the house for the Canadian boy for a couple of hours without any luck.

"Let's go wait in the kitchen. You two can tell me about your friends as we figure out the details for this campout." Said John with an exasperated sigh, "Mattie will come out when he feels like it."

"It would be pretty funny if he was just hanging out around us this whole time, just waiting for us to figure it out." Alfred said with a grin. The three of them then sat down at the table and started talking. They were so engrossed with this that they didn't notice the last chair moving itself away from the table.

"I wonder what I'll have to do to get them to notice that I'm here…" Matthew thought to himself as he listened in on the conversation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again, I would like to apologize for the delays. I have been doing about five things outside of this and they have kept me very busy. I haven't gotten myself properly obsessed with this installment of the Gifted Series and I haven't quite finished figuring out what all the chapters are about. In other words, updates to this story will be slower than for Feliciano's Fire. Please enjoy this chapter, as usual I really like reviews. They help keep me going.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or any media that inspired this story.**

It only took ten minutes for Matthew to get fed up with not being noticed and give himself away. He was mildly ashamed with himself because normally he was very patient, but not being noticed was a sensitive issue for the Canadian. It bothered him even if he wasn't noticed because he chose not to be visible.

"Oh hey Mattie, when'd you get here?" Alfred asked in an innocent, slightly oblivious tone. Matthew's eye twitched at his brother's nonchalant tone.

"I've been here the whole time Al…" he said as calmly as possible. Before he could say anything else to Alfred, Matthew felt Francis's hand on his shoulder. Out of all his relatives Francis picked up on Matthew's insecurity the most, and did his best to make Matthew stand out. The Canadian knew that his own nature made this an uphill battle for his cousin, especially since his own brother was naturally good at attracting attention. Matthew looked up at Francis.

"We are very glad you are here. Now please tell us what you think we should do for our trip." Said Francis. Matthew nodded.

"Well… I think that we should do our best to go to our favorite camping ground, and we should do tent camping because it makes it more of an adventure."

"Sweet." Alfred said with a smile, Francis had a slightly defeated look on his face.

"Have I done something to offend you? Do you really want to make this as difficult for me as possible?"

"No… I just want our friends to have the best experience possible….. Plus mom wanted me to make sure there was no way Al could spend the whole trip playing video games." Matthew said while smiling and scratching his head.

"I think it's a great idea Mattie, it's not really camping if you have air conditioning." Said John. "So how many are expected to come, and when will they be here?"

"Six more are expected, Gilbert and Ludwig are supposed to come in a couple of days and the others within the same week. I'm not sure how long it will take for all of them to adjust to the time difference as all of them are coming from Europe." Francis replied. Matthew sat quietly in thought for a moment.

"So we should give them all a little time to adjust before we go on the trip."

"Well how long should that take? I mean, aren't most of them used to the extreme time changes they go through every few months?" asked Alfred. Francis nodded.

"It only takes me a few days, the same for Gilbert but he's better at functioning during the adjustment period. Antonio and Elizabeta also don't take too long. I have no idea about the Vargas brothers or Ludwig…" Francis said with a shrug.

"Ok… so assuming that Feliciano and his brother will take longer to get on our clock than the others, let's say…. About a week?" Matthew tentatively suggested. The others nodded to show that that sounded like a reasonable amount of time. If the Italians needed more time than that was their problem.

"Alright, so we're going on this trip a week after the last people show up here? Sounds good to me, but how are we going to do this tenting thing? With Molly and me going there will be eleven people on this trip." The boys' uncle said with a raised eyebrow.

"We could divide by age, and have three tents. A couple of big tents, one for Francis's friends and one for Al and Mattie's friends. You could stay with the younger boys and I'll share a tent with your friend Elizabeta." Alfred and Matthew's mom said with a smile. John nods and writes all of this down. Francis gets out his phone and sends out a text to everyone who is going to Matthew's place to let them know about the plans for when they arrived.

**Aaaaannnd this chapter is short as hell. I suppose that is my fault since I insisted on this story being a part of the main story line and the focal point will be the camping trip. I guess this is an exercise in writing about something mundane. I mean seriously, the whole point of this chapter is planning for the trip. Ah well, I hope that all of you liked it anyway.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi people, welcome to another chapter of this little story. THIS IS SO LATE! O_O; I've been very busy lately. If you haven't already noticed this you'll eventually notice that the closer you are to getting out of a particular educational institution the busier you'll be. I'm going to do my best to update at least once a week but it's going to be a little tough with this story. The reason is that I haven't had the idea for this installment of the Gifted Series (or any other…) sitting around in my mind for months like I did for Feliciano's Fire. So what I'd like are some ideas for things that could happen in this story, during the camping trip in particular. I have an idea of all the plot points that are significant to the following stories but I'd like to make the chapters for this story a bit longer than the others have been. If I use an idea from one of the readers I'll credit them for it. Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or any other media that inspired this story.**

**EDIT: As most of you may have noticed, I have not updated for over a month now due to my inability to remain focused when I self assign deadlines. I'm sorry for keeping you waiting and wanted to let you know that I will be updating soon, for real this time.**

A few days went by and Matthew was inexplicably worried about something, Alfred knew this because his brother went off to some quiet area of the house all by himself in the middle of a conversation. Alfred had a hunch about what might be bothering his brother, so he decided to talk to Matthew. Said Canadian was sitting by himself in a corner in the living room

"Hey Mattie, I couldn't help but notice that you went away while I was talking to you. I know that you aren't rude like that most of the time. Wanna share what's on your mind?" Matthew looked up at his brother.

"Well…. It's just…. Do you really want to know or are you asking because you feel guilty about something?" Alfred looked surprised that Matthew came to that conclusion. It would make sense for someone outside the family to think that the latter would be the motivation; Alfred came off as conceited to most people. Alfred was shocked his only brother would think that. He shook his head slightly.

"I really want to know what's bothering you. I'll only feel guilty if it's my fault." Alfred said sincerely. Even if he didn't always do a good job of showing it he really cared about his brother. Matthew sighed and sat up a bit.

"You ever notice how I get ignored most of the time?" he asked. Alfred just stared intently at Matthew, not wanting to admit that he never noticed the trend. "Well I don't get noticed most of the time, a good example of that is how you didn't introduce me to Feliciano on his first day even though you are my brother and we were in the same class. I ended up meeting his older brother first. I generally keep quiet…. maybe that's why I'm so easy to miss… but I really hate being ignored like I don't exist."

"That makes sense, but why is it bothering you right now? A bunch of people who are friends with you are coming over…" Alfred pointed out. Matthew nodded in agreement.

"That's true, but besides Feliciano, Ludwig, and you all of them are older than us… Even though all of the Bad Company Club treats me well enough and includes me, I'm kind of an add-on because I'm so much younger than all the others…." Alfred continued listening, he was starting to understand what was going on. He thought to himself about how frustrating it would be to go almost completely unnoticed by the people who called themselves your friends.

"Mattie….."

"What?" he said. Alfred reached out and hugged his brother, leaving the other slightly confused but appreciative.

"Even if people don't notice you all the time I'll always be there for you. You're my brother and I'm the hero so don't worry, everything will be fine." Alfred said with a smile. Matthew's facial expression was somewhere along the lines of "again with the hero thing?" but then he smiled. Alfred had a feeling that his message got across.

"So what are we going to do now?" Matthew asked.

"As I was saying earlier, we could go see if some of the neighbors want to play a game with us."

"That sounds like a good idea." They went outside to go and play with the neighbors. It took several minutes for the group to settle on what they were going to play. They decided to play a game of dodge ball. Alfred elected himself and Matthew as the team captains and divided into their teams.

"Alright, we need to find a place to do this!" Alfred said confidently. Matthew looked stupefied.

"You mean to say you have no idea where we are actually going to play a game of dodge ball? But you pushed for us to play this game anyway?"

"Oh relax, I'm sure that we'll figure something out….." he said looking around. He then noticed Francis watching them as though the group of children gathered near the front porch was the most interesting thing on the planet. "Hey Francis, wanna talk our way into some gym? We want to play dodge ball but I forgot that it works better when it's played indoors…." Francis tried to suppress his laughter to no avail.

"Why don't you go and see if you can find a place with walls to play your game before you ask me for help?" he said as he went inside to laugh some more.

Alfred frowned and muttered to himself about how Francis was no help at all. Matthew sighed and motioned for the group to follow him. They walked towards the nearest indoor basketball court in hopes that they could use it for their game. Along the way they saw a man take a woman's purse.

"I don't think I've ever seen something like this happen in this town…." One of the children said. Alfred glared at the man.

"Mattie, I gotta blow cover…." He said.

"Huh?" Alfred then launched himself at the man as fast as he could and latched on. The man was shocked and tried to shake the kid off of him and was surprised when he was lifted into the air.

"Do yourself a favor and give the lady's purse back. If you don't drop it I'll get violent with you." The man stared in shock at Alfred, but didn't look as though he took the threat seriously. "If you don't just give it to me to return I can pry it from your fingers, which might end with some of them being broken. I'm giving you the easy option here." Alfred said in a firmer tone, he also had a dead serious look on his face. The man paled slightly and dropped the handbag. Alfred put him down and pushed him away. "Now get out of my face before I get the cops involved…" Matthew stormed up to his brother.

"You idiot! I know that you hate seeing injustice but by blowing your cover you may have cost us a group of playmates! Don't you realize how terrifying you looked? Now none of my neighbors will want to play a game of golf with you, let alone dodge ball!" he said with a strange ferocity. Alfred shrugged and laughed.

"It had to be done, plus we go back a while with most of these kids. They know we're fully capable of pretending we're normal for the sake of having fun." The other kids stared at them for a moment. None of them were sure what to do at that moment. Some of them were taught that gifted people were extremely dangerous, but they knew Matthew Williams would never use any kind of power for bad things. Alfred was more of a stranger, but he also seemed to have a decent moral compass.

"That was totally awesome!" one of them yelled. The group then crowded around Alfred and Matthew, to the slight confusion of both brothers. Matthew was completely surprised considering how there were times that the boys were run out of parties because of the fact they were gifted. Alfred just shrugged.

"I guess we have a better group of friends than we thought…"

"Yeah…." Matthew said. The boys and their friends ended up spending the afternoon talking about their adventures at Rosewood Academy.

**Woo! Craptacular ending is… well you know the meme. I hope that the ending of the chapter gives you lovely readers some insight into how much I need ideas. Also please review, when I'm getting reviews it drives me into an updating frenzy. One of you has been very good about leaving reviews, you know who you are. In any case, I just really wanted to post something because it has been a while. I promise you that more interesting things are going to happen in this story at some point. It'll get better in a couple of chapters when the others start arriving.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello my lovely people, I'm back with another chapter in this amusing to write fanfiction. If you want to learn a bit more about this series go to my deviantART page and look in my journal. You'll also learn about how I'm bad at keeping with a timetable. Now that the silly self-advertisement is done please enjoy this chapter. Also please review, I really like getting reviews. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or any media that inspired this story.**

**Edit: I started writing this chapter early in 2012, sorry for being gone for about a year. I'm back now.**

Francis was spending time in Matthew's tree house cleaning it out. The small structure held many fond memories for the Frenchman, particularly from the first time he met his younger cousins. Over the years the tree house was used less and less by the boys and this made him somewhat sad. He recalled how this small structure was their home during the waking hours of the summer, the only place where they didn't have to be afraid of being judged for what they could do. As he sat there in his musings the elder of his two cousins entered from the hole in the floor.

"Hey Francis, what are you doing up here by yourself?" He asked in his typical happy-go-lucky fashion.

"I was just cleaning up a bit and remembering how we used to enjoy spending so much time here. It feels so long ago even though it's only been a few years." Francis replied with a chuckle. Alfred shrugged, it seemed a little odd to get sentimental since it was only four years ago that they used to play together in this place. He shrugged, deciding that it probably had more to do with Francis' age compared to them and that it didn't hurt to agree for talking's sake.

"Yeah, I think I get what you mean. This was like our super-secret base, since we all basically have super powers it makes me think we're in the Justice League or something like that."

"Always with the cartoons and comic's with you isn't it? Ah well, remember how we desperately wanted to spend the night up here but Aunt Jane would not let us?"

"Yeah! Mom was always worried that we might fall down or something." Alfred said in a tone of realization. He then looked somewhat thoughtful. "I wonder if she'd still have a problem with it."

"Why don't we go and ask her again? I think that we could actually convince her to let us spend the night in the tree house."

"That sounds like an awesome idea! Let's go get Mattie and ask right now!" Alfred exclaimed. The two boys went and found the youngest one to tell him their great idea.

"So you really want to sleep up there?" Matthew asked.

"I'd think that was obvious." said Francis with a smirk. Sometimes he wondered where Matthew's sense of adventure went when the topic isn't conventional outdoor activities. "I thought you would be really excited to try and do this, it's something we always wanted to do."

"Don't you think we should maybe not stay up all night tonight?" Matthew asked.

"Why not?" Alfred responded. Matthew sighed, it seemed that his older brother had forgotten.

"Gilbert and Ludwig are supposed to arrive tomorrow. We can't exactly greet them if we're sleeping in and aren't even in the house." Francis nodded, noting Matthew's point. It seemed that their excitement and nostalgia caused them to forget that the first guests would be there soon.

"Why don't we ask if we could spend the night in the tree house tomorrow night? That way we don't have to worry about letting our friends in." Francis suggested.

Matthew smiled, "Works for me. Let's go make sure that this is ok with mom before anything else." The boys then went to get permission for their tree house slumber party.

**Well guys, this is a bit of a shorty but I feel good enough about it. I'm really happy to be back in the groove of things and I'm incredibly pleased that I got some immediate enthusiasm when I posted the Author note saying that this story was going off hiatus. I love it when I hear from you readers and I hope that I can continue to present something that is entertaining.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello again readers! I hope you all like this little chapter I have for you this week. That's about all I have to say.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia or any media that inspired this story.**

The next day all three boys were excited, as silly as camping in a tree house seemed it was something that Matthew, Alfred, and Francis had wanted to do for a long time. To add to their excitement was the arrival of their friends from Germany. Matthew smiled; glad that his friends would get to share in this experience. He knew that Gilbert would dub the tree house sleep over 'awesome' as it is his way of showing enjoyment. He also hoped that the younger German would also have fun. He continued to muse to himself as he played with a stuffed bear of his. As this was going on Alfred and Francis were bringing the things they would need for the night Matthew was waiting for the other two to arrive. He played with his bear, animated courtesy of his aunt. He mused about the many escapades the Bad Company Club had been in during the brief time he had been a part of it, such as the Great Campus Chase of 2010, the Epic Food Fights and other such events that he didn't think about in great detail. Not more than a few minutes later, the doorbell rang. Matthew went to go answer the door as Francis rushed inside to greet his friend. Both boys answered the door and both Beilschmidt brothers were standing there.

"Hello! Welcome to my cousin's house!" Francis practically yelled at the older brother. Gilbert stared at his friend with an irritated expression, then wordlessly entered the house. He found the nearest couch and flopped on it face first.

"Give us an hour or two…. the flight was exhausting…" Gilbert said after pulling his face out of the cushions. It didn't take long for the two of them to fall asleep.

Several hours later, Gilbert and Ludwig were awake and ready for their night in the tree house. Both of them helped finish setting up for the night.

"Who built this for you? It's a fucking tree mansion!" exclaimed Gilbert once he took a look around the structure.

"My mom's brother built it for us when we were little," Matthew explained, "We really wanted one and he likes to build so it made sense."

"Yeah dudes, we are gonna have a fantastic time tonight!" Alfred yelled. Ludwig looked at the American with a typical seriousness.

"What other strange things do you have planned for us to do while we are here?"

"We are going on a camping trip after everyone's here and on the same clock." said Matthew. Ludwig nodded and Gilbert grinned.

"That sounds like an awesome idea!"

Francis rolled his eyes, "Of course you would think it is awesome, you like things like camping."

"Heh, maybe you should suck it up and deal with it. It's not our fault if you can't keep up with the rest of the group." Gilbert's comments incited an argument among the two elder boys as the younger ones stared in disbelief. Once they settled down they all got comfortable to tell stories before they went to bed.

"I have a story, it's part of the mythology associated with Gifted people." Gilbert said with a smirk as he began the story.

**_Once, a very long time ago, there was a powerful entity that referred to herself only as the Goddess. She looked down upon mankind and saw that they were clever creatures, but were limited by the bodies they were born with. She decided to go down to Earth and find the cleverest people who were the most disadvantaged to give them the gift of Magic. These humans were pleased with their new abilities, and began to discover ways they could make their lives better. In recognition of what the Goddess did for them, they began referring to themselves as the Gifted. The Goddess was pleased with the progress the people were making with magic and gave them instruction in very advanced magic. Unfortunately people who weren't given magic felt threatened by their neighbors, and decided that they must put an end to the Gifted people. One by one, users of Magic who were not very proficient in the art were rounded up and killed. Others were able to find ways to fight back, often choosing to specialize on a certain kind of Magic to keep their attackers away. This specialization came at a cost though, as these people lost the ability to do other kinds of magic. Only a very small number of Magic users were strong enough in many kinds of magic to protect themselves from the greater numbers of people who were not Gifted. In spite of all this, the Gifted people went into hiding refusing to show their powers in fear of what others would do to them. The Goddess was furious, she came to see her chosen people as her children and would not stand by and allow the humans to rule her chosen. She had to bide her time, there were too few Gifted in the world to take her revenge right away. She also refused to give her power to those who shunned those superior to them. It is said that the Goddess will return to Earth, in a time where the numbers of the Gifted are many and the humans were weak to place her children in their rightful place as the rulers of the world._**

Matthew and Alfred hung on to the older boy's every word, they had never heard this story before and to them it was gripping. Once Gilbert had finished Alfred found himself unable to resist the urge to ask questions about it.

"Is that a real story?"

"It depends on who you're asking, this is considered to be true by many Gifted people. I personally think it's highly unlikely." Gilbert said, "I only know the story because my mother used to tell it as a bedtime story."

The boys continued their conversation late into the night, eventually falling fast asleep.

**Well, here's another chapter as promised. I hope you all liked Gilbert's story, it felt fitting to me. Also know that when there's a big story in a story the italics does not signify a language besides English being used. I just did that to differentiate between the author's notes and something in the story. As always, I ask that you take the time to review as I love hearing from my readers. Until next week! **


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